Conventionally, when a piece of mail (letter, postcard, parcel, or package) enters the postal system, the piece of mail will contain zip code information and a stamp unless the piece of mail has been metered by a postal metering machine. The zip code provides the postal system with information concerning the destination of the piece of mail, and the stamps demonstrates that the user has paid for the postal service.
In order to sort the piece of mail to its proper destination, the zip codes are either read by a machine or human wherein the zip code information is entered into a controller which controls the sorting and routing of the piece of mail to its next destination. Thus, the piece of mail is directed to the next distribution system based upon the entered zip code information.
However, when the piece of mail reaches the next sorting location, the zip code must be entered again so that it can be further directed to its next destination. Therefore, in order to properly sort a piece of mail through the postal system in which the zip code is read by a human, a number of different people must read the zip code from the piece of mail and enter this information into the control system so that the mail can be properly sorted. This requirement of having a number of different people entering the zip codes for proper sorting and distribution increases the potential number of mistakes in routing the piece of mail to its right destination, thereby decreasing the overall efficiency of the postal system.
One possible solution to the utilization of people to read and input the zip codes into the control system is to have the zip code printed on the piece of mail in the form of a machine readable barcode. This machine readable barcode can be printed on the piece of mail by either the sender or by the postal service's letter handling equipment. Presently, only commercial mail has utilized such machine readable barcodes because the use of machine readable codes on private letters may cause a negative public reaction. Thus, the utilization of a machine readable barcode has been restricted to use on commercial mail only.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a system wherein the mail enters the postal system and the zip code is printed on the parcel, package, envelope, or post card as a machine readable code but the code is esthetically pleasing to the eye or undiscernible to the human eye so as to avoid any negative reaction by the public to encoding private letters or post cards with machine readable zip code information. In view of this desire, the present invention proposes the utilization of glyphs in the stamp cancellation mark, postal metering mark, or other postal mark to encode the zip code information so as to provide the proper sorting and distribution information to the postal system. The glyphs would be undiscernible to the human eye, thus avoiding any negative reaction from the public with respect to encoding machine readable zip code information on private letters or post cards.